Hyderabad: Vehicular traffic was badly hit on two major highways in Andhra Pradesh Thursday as political parties blockaded roads over the proposed location of an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in the state.

While opposition party activists blocked the Hyderabad-Nagpur road (National Highway 7) to demand setting up of the IIT in the temple town of Basara in Adilabad district as originally proposed, the ruling Congress stopped traffic on the Hyderabad-Mumbai road (National Highway 9) in support of the decision to locate it in Medak district.

Hundreds of vehicles were stranded at various places, including on the outskirts of Hyderabad and in Nizamabad and Adilabad districts, as activists of the opposition Telugu Desam Party, Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and other parties blocked the Hyderabad-Nagpur road.

Protesters squatted on the road for the daylong agitation and even cooked their food.

The state-owned Road Transport Corporation had to suspend bus services on several routes and divert others.

The central government had in December sanctioned an IIT for Andhra Pradesh. The state government had announced that it would be located in Medak district near Hyderabad, ignoring a decade-long demand to set it up in Basara.

Ever since the government's announcement, opposition parties, student bodies, educationists and NGOs in Adilabad, Nizamabad and Karimnagar districts have been agitating. (IANS)